BIG FUTURES FOUNDATION POLICY STATEMENT ON COMPLIMENTS AND COMPLAINTS
(Reviewed November 2022)
This document is intended to clearly present the main points of the Compliments and Complaints procedures at Big Futures Foundation (BFF).
We are committed to treating all service users, staff, volunteers, and supporters fairly and we take equality and diversity into account in a positive way. We will therefore ensure that individual needs are taken into account when applying this policy and that any reasonable adjustments are made as required.
Compliments
We love to receive encouraging feedback from our service users, staff, volunteers and supporters. We will share feedback with our team, and also may take the wording for use in social media posts, funding bids and press releases, when given permission to do so. We will keep the provider of feedback anonymous where sensitivity is required, or if requested to do so.
Complaints
BFF takes all complaints raised seriously and will respond to these accordingly. We request all complaints in writing and will respond via the following process.
Complaint Stage 1:
Stage 1 of a complaint is the first formal stage and we will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 3 working days. Our acknowledgement can be made verbally or in writing and will include a date or time frame by which you can expect to receive a response.
We will then investigate your complaint and aim to have our investigation complete within 25 days. We may request to meet with the complainant as part of the investigation process.
Once we have responded, the complainant will have 28 days to take your complaint to stage 2, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Complaint Stage 2:
If you remain dissatisfied following our investigation at stage 1, you can ask for your complaint to be looked at again. At this stage we will ask you to provide details in writing to aid the new investigation, and let us know why you are still dissatisfied.
At stage 2 we will appoint a senior member of staff to review your complaint. In exceptional circumstances, the investigator may be from another service or organisation, if we feel an independent review is required. The complaint will be acknowledged in the same way as at stage 1.
Next steps:
There is no further right of appeal to the charity following completion of an investigation at stage 2 of this policy. Within our final response, we will inform you of your right to take your complaint further if you remain dissatisfied. Our response will contain the contact details for the appropriate Ombudsman’s office service by day 30. The final response will be signed by a member of the trustee board and sent to complainant day 35.
We would not normally investigate complaints about something that happened more than a year ago, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
If you wish to proceed with a complement or complaint, please send your name and contact details to admin@bigfuturesfoundation.org.uk.
A review of our Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedures will take place every year and will be ratified at a meeting of the Board of Trustees.
Signed by Chief Executive Officer
M Foulks
Dated: 14th November 2022
